32 EUROPE' LOOKS. AT INDIA

ness help greatly to set off the beauties and perfections
of Christianity.'* It is at times difficult enough to deter-
mine which of the two, polytheism or atheism, he des-
pised most, Having left a "godless5 Europe he found
himself now surrounded by godfearing Hindus, and the
result was a peculiar conflict of loyalties which it took
Dubois many hundred pages of his book to solve. Con-
fronted by this alternative he takes sides with the Hindus.
We must give Dubois credit for his consistence, although
we cannot help being slightly amused by his reference to
Voltaire, It almost seems as though the Abbe and the
Freethinker find a common platform in their condemna-
tion of the West. It is quite true, therefore, that a reli-
gion, however bad and absurd it may be, is still preferable
to the absence of any religion at all. Unquestionably, in
my opinion, the worshipper of the Trimurti is much less
contemptible than the freethinker who presumes to deny
the existence of God. A Hindu who professes the doc-
trine of metempsychosis proves that he has infinitely
more commonsense than those vain philosophers who
utilize all their logic in proving that they are merely brute
beasts, and that "death is merely an "eternal sleep" for
the reasoning man as well as for the animal which can-
not reason ... And I may fitly terminate these remarks by
drawing attention to the testimony of Voltaire, a man
whom nobody can accuse^ of too much partiality in the
matter of religion/ f

Dubois' various remarks on the, Hindu religion can-
not bear'scrutiny at all. In all probability he under-
stood very little of the main principles underlying Hin-

*-I)nfcoisop,eit;, jx; 11. "• " -- . " ." •".'

t IHd;, p. 61$"; See ^Voltaire: Traite de la Tctorwce, Chapter xx.